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House concurs with Senate changes to school funding bill after debate over charter approvals and $300,000 pilot fund
Summary
The Utah House voted to concur with Senate amendments to First Substitute House Bill 2, approving minimum school program budget changes that delay charter-school final approval timing and redirect $300,000 toward a teacher performance-pay pilot; the measure passed 47–27.
The Utah House on March 11 concurred with Senate amendments to First Substitute House Bill 2, a package of changes to the state's minimum school program, after members debated charter-school approval timing and a $300,000 reallocation for a teacher performance-pay pilot.
Representative Merlin Newbold, the bill sponsor, explained the Senate's substitute creates a two-step approval process for new charter schools: the State Board of Education would give tentative approval on Nov. 30 two years before a school opens, the legislature would then vote during the following session to increase charter enrollment capacity, and final approval would follow after April 1 when the session ends. Newbold said the substitute also adjusts funding lines, shifting resources for a salary increase at the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind and freeing $300,000 that could be appropriated if a separate performance-pay bill passes the Senate.
'We added 13,000 new students approximately to our public education system this year,' Newbold said, arguing the substitute increases weighted pupil units and dollars across the basic program categories to reflect growth.
Opponents pressed caution about moving funds in a tight budget. Representative Bigelow said he would vote for the bill but warned colleagues that the package commits the state to funding enrollment growth next year and characterized that commitment as a conceptual tax increase if revenues do not recover: 'It is a tax increase.' Several members also criticized trimming the teacher salary supplemental restricted account, which funds a math- and science-differential pay program, to free $300,000 for the pilot.
Sponsor and supporters said the $300,000 is a modest, targeted amount intended to keep momentum on a teacher performance-pay pilot (House Bill 328) and that the chosen funds do not currently appropriate money to any specific bill until the pilot measure clears the Senate. The sponsor also reported a $580,000 adjustment to fund salary increases at the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, made by reducing a Social Security line inside the minimum school program.
After floor discussion and a sponsor summation, the motion to concur with the Senate amendments was recorded and the House reported final passage of First Substitute House Bill 2 by a vote of 47 yes and 27 no. The bill will be returned to the Senate for signature and enrollment.
